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Posts Tagged → Wordpress

What?

Oh no!  As I posted earlier last week I spent the entire weekend putting my blog back online specifically because I updated to the latest version of Wordpress 2.6.  I just posted another post and right on the top of the page is says…

WordPress 2.6.1 is available! Please update now.

Holy Cow!  No way I am tackling that upgrade this soon!  I think I would need a valium to calm my nerves this soon after going through that just a week ago.  Actually I have updated to the newest version before but last week I made a mistake with the database upgrade without backing up first. That was my own fault.  Still I thought that was funny seeing that upgrade notice just one week after I upgraded.  I think I will wait a little while before doing this again.

Technorati Tags: ,,,

What Happened to the Blog?

Yesterday I went to update my blog to the newest Wordpress 2.6 and I managed to destroy my sql database.  How nice is that when you have more than two years of blog posts?  I had to start completely over yesterday and repost all my blog posts one at at time.  I have been working on it the entire weekend and I am not done yet.  You may have noticed this time, my blog address it paulmccord.net as opposed to www.paulmccord.net.  This was not intentional though I like it that way.  As you may have noticed, it forwards you here even if you preceded the URL by www.  I even lost the theme to the blog but I have found it on the developer’s site.  I will have to customize it back to the way it was before putting it back online.  We have had the Olympics on television for entertainment while working on the page.

We just had a small shower move through and it was nice though we need much more.  We started off the year way above normal and then somewhere during June, it dried out and we have had very little rain since.  My grass has not been mowed in more than a month.  I am so glad to get some rain to give my lawn a little bit to survive on.  I just checked the National Weather Service page and they are forecasting a high of 82 and a low of 62 degrees on Friday.  I sure hope they are right because that would be incredibly cool for this time of year and this would be great!

This summer actually went pretty fast this year and I can hardly believe that school starts on Tuesday, August 12th.  This is amazing that it is already time to go back to school.  I have been off for the last week from the University of Oklahoma and do not go back until August 25th.  Two weeks have past since my father in-law’s dog chased my cat away and she has never come back.  This is a little sad because I have had her for six years.  I have pictures of my mom and my wife’s mom with the cat and they are both gone now.

It is funny how the NBA team still holds off on announcing the name of the new team when everyone knows it will be Oklahoma City Thunder.  Even now you can go to http://www.nba.com/thunder and it goes to a blank white page while nba.com/anything goes to a page not found.  Last Wednesday they goofed and put Oklahoma City Thunder schedule on the page on the day they released the 2008 – 2009 schedule.  I can only imagine the reason they are holding off on the announcement because they want to have all the shirts and artwork ready.  Lets hope they make the official announcement soon. I will be anxiously awaiting on the edge of my seat.

Windows Live Writer

This post is really nothing more than an attempt to test the new version of Windows Live Writer.  You know, I am famous for downloading every new toy that comes along on the Internet to try it out.  I have found a number of blog posting software that I really like such as the one built into the Flock browser.  Without question the best I have come across is the free Windows Live Writer.  This is about the most smooth running what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editors you will find.  It even takes the appearance of your blog if you are running a theme.  I just love it because you do not have to go in there and worry about formatting  or anything but just typing your message.

This program is so easy to post pictures from Flicker, or any other photo sharing web site.  It makes embedding videos from Youtube or any other site a breeze with a two second copy and paste.  This program is so awesome because it allows you to add Technorati tags with a couple mouse clicks, as well as add category tags for your blog.  It seems to work with all the big name blogging formats like Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, among others.  I also like the fact that it keeps an archive of previous posts so you can go back and edit your post if you notice an error after you have posted it.  I would strongly recommend others to download Windows Live Writer and give it a try if you have not tried it.

I know, I know, people like to bash Microsoft in this sort of Google rules the world while Microsoft is the antichrist but they really made a good product here.  I have never agreed with this philosophy anyway but even if you did, you would have to be impressed by this blog editing program.  I know people get use to a certain format but Windows Live Writer is perfect because it even puts the margins in line with the actual blog so you can see exactly what it will look like before you post it.  Of course this program was designed for Microsoft’s own Windows Live Spaces, social networking site but it will work with your own site no matter where it is hosted.  While we are speaking of Windows Live Spaces, I must say that it is not bad if you do not have a place to host your blog.  It does have the stigma that everyone seems to put on them being from Microsoft but it is not that bad.  Secondly, they have the Skydrive in Spaces that allows you to host up to five GB of space for your personal files.  I will not harp on it too much but it is worth a second look.  I would use it myself if I did not have my own domain.

Download Windows Live Writer and give it a try.  Even if you had an older version, you will like the new version.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer,Windows Live Spaces,Skydrive,Microsoft,Youtube,Flock,Typepad,Wordpress,Blogger,Technorati

Technorati Test Post

For some time my posts have been indexed but not the tags. I am a little frustrated so I am posting from directly inside wordpress. I have been using Windows Live Writer for some time and I just want to see where things are going wrong.

Technorati Tags: wordpress, technorati, Oklahoma City, ice storm

Death of Email? No Way!

I have seen several articles around the net the last couple of days such as Slate, Thomas Hawk, Peter Haus, John Murrell, and Eric Gonzolez posting about the end of email.  These articles either agree or disagree with the fact that children are abandoning email for social networking sites.  Many make the argument and even advocate that email will and should fade away because of spam being out of control.  They argue that because most email people get are spam and just take too long to go through.  The position that many kids today do not even check their email being evidence of email’s demise may be compelling but I think it misses the point that kids do eventually grow up.

I have to agree that my own kids never check their email.  They would prefer to send messages back and forth via MySpace.  I often choose to use Facebook myself over email.  Despite this truth, I understand that as an early adopter I like to jump to the newest toy of the day.  I just love it when new ways to communicate are invented.  I have a MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Twitter, Vox, Wordpress, and a whole host of other accounts.  I am always jumping to the newest toy.  I think most people in the United States are like this.  That is why Wal-Mart continuously builds bigger stores.  Here in Oklahoma City, we have had Wal-Mart for years.  Nevertheless, Wal-Mart continuously closes their stores and builds newer, and bigger stores.

I work on an Air Force Base and have to deal with the fact that I cannot access any social networking sites, or webmail accounts.  At work I am unable to access Zooomr, or Flickr or any other photo sharing sites.  I am unable to access any instant messenger sites either.  The bottom line being that the only way you can access the outside world is to use the base email.  For security reasons most people can understand this control.

Secondly my kids will not use instant messaging either, opting to send messages via MySpace.  At some point they are going to need to send files to each other.  If they do not use an instant messaging program, they will most likely choose email  I do believe that email will continue to be a necessity.  While the above articles make some valid points that are compelling, I do think the predictions of emails failure are missing the point that many corporations, government agencies will not allow their trade secrets to be traded over a third party social networking site.  With this in mind I will have to respectfully disagree.  Email is likely to be around for a long time.

Technorati Tags: email , social networking , myspace , facebook , xanga , twitter , flickr , zooomr , walmart , wordpress , vox , Thomas Hawk , Peter Haus , John Murrell , Eric Gonzolez

Blogging

I got an email from an old family friend today that commented about my blog and how he liked when people have blogs.  I agree completely.   The first time I saw a blog, I did not get what the fuss was all about.  I did not understand what the benefits were.  There are many benefits to blogging.  Chief among them is being able to speak to many people simultaneously whether it be family, friends, or even commercially.  The ability to tell the world what is going on in your life without having to write a separate letter to everyone you know.

You can use a blog as a personal message board to spread the word of current events in your life, or you can use it commercially.  Some people use them as a journalistic tool to discuss news stories of the day.  The uses are endless as I have learned over time.   One of the benefits of having a blog is that you have a permanent log of past conversations.  Your readers can respond to you on the web site making it interactive allowing readers to input or give feedback.

With the invention of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, your simple personal blog can become global with a simple cut and paste of a simple URL into your RSS reader.  This is a very powerful tool to allow people to get the content of your blog without having to go there.  They can add that URL feed to their web site or aggregator and read many pages at once through their pages.  There are other tools such as Technorati that allow you to put tags on your story.  These tags are integrated into the Technorati web site so that when anyone searches for a specific tag that your web site has, your page will be in the search results.

Blogging is a very addictive hobby as I have found for myself.  If you have never tried it, you should try it sometime.  There are many free web sites that you can sign up for.  A few examples are Blogger, Yahoo! 360, Wordpress, VOX, Facebook, MySpace, Windows Live, among others.  I am sure you can find one that you will like.  You will be telling your story to the world in no time.

Technorati Tags: blogging, technorati, blogger, Yahoo! 360, Wordpress, VOX, Facebook, MySpace

Possible Changes

I am considering converting this blog to a Drupal platform.  I do like the Wordpress format that I currently have but since is is pretty standard format, it allows spammers to get control.  You may not be aware but there are automatic spammers that post 15 to 20 spam messages a day to this blog.   I usually delete them as soon as they come in so you most likely never see them. They usually do not have any content other than a one word title and a URL back to another page.  Since the file names in Wordpress are pretty standard if a person wishes to spam and they know the file name they can post even if a password is required.

This change if done will most likely be during a long weekend when I have more time to install and configure.  Also you may have noticed the change in the heading I have changed from photo//tech to photo | tech | faith.  This is because I want to be open to discuss Biblical moral issues that I feel are important.  I say if you are going to post on a blog you should talk about what interests you.

Anyway, I am really evaluating the benefits versus hassles of changing the blog over to a new platform. Both systems are open source so I will have to study whether it is worth changing.  I will post if I decide later  prior to doing it.

Technorati tags: Drupal, Wordpress, blog, changes

Flock Browser

You know you are a geek when you have to try out every new toy that you find on the Inernet. I am sort of like that myself. There is a semi new browser out on the web that is built on Firefox. This new browser is called Flock and is becoming more and more popular. They call themselves “the social browser” and by looking at the features you can see why.

Flock has some social networking tools that are pretty amazing at least to me they are. One of the features is blogging. With Flock all you have to do is put the URL of your blog in the block and it will automatically detect the platform your blog is using. Once it determines the type of blog it is, it will prompt you for your user name and password. From that point on, all you have to do if you want to post to a blog of your choice is to click “Tools” then Blog. It will pop up a window for you to type your blog post in. Just give it a title and type your post. Click Publish and you are done. One more thing is that when you publish, the Flock poster will give you an opportunity to add all the Technorati tags you want.

Another fine feature of Flock is the ability to drag and drop photos into your browser to be uploaded into Flickr, a popular photo sharing site. This makes adding photos a breeze and I really love this. I am hoping that support for Zooomr comes soon. Zooomr is another popular photo sharing site.

Since the Flock browser is built on the Firefox engine, it has all the features that Firefox has built right in. The browser also has a cool feature to help you share your photos on popular blogging sites such as MySpace, Blogger, Wordpress and others. You can drag and drop your photos and then type your comments into the text block and then click submit. It is that easy. You don’t have to understand HTML or any code. This browser is a social blogger’s dream. You really shoud try this out now. If you blog or would like to blog and have no idea where to start, this is the browser for you.

I cannot say enough good things about Flock so go get it now!

Technorati tags: Flock, browser, Flickr, Zooomr, MySpace, Blogger, Wordpress, Firefox, social browser